Cloth Diaper Addiction

Flats Challenge Day 1: Why Take The Challenge?

2013-05-21T00:08:00.001-04:00

I am so excited to start the week of posts about the Flats Challenge! I am blogging along with Kim Rosas of DirtyDiaperLaundry this week while we and over 430 others use exclusively flat cloth diapers and hand wash them. I first heard about the challenge last spring when Ava was about 3 months old, but I was really new to cloth diapers at that time and flats were very intimidating to me. The thought of hand washing as well? It just didn't seem like something I could do. Now as I have cloth diapered for 15 months, I have started to realize just how manageable flats are. The hand washing part? I think it will be just fine.

My primary reason for taking the Flats Challenge is to show that flats are not as hard to use as people think. Learning the folding technique is what makes most people nervous about flats, and I am hoping to show that anyone can learn it! As many as 1 in 3 families struggle to afford to diaper their babies, and I hope that this challenge and series of blog posts can be a useful resource to help families be able to learn about how they can save money by using flat diapers.

A messy Origami fold - Ava didn't want to hold still today.

An additional benefit to learning to hand wash diapers is the ability to take cloth on the road very easily. I love that I can take my camp washer and flats camping now or on a road trip and not have to spend money on disposables! Learning to hand wash diapers (or clothes!) in a camp washer is also great in case of power outages, weather emergencies, or instances where a washer breaks down. Many families don't have their own washer or dryer and can't get to a laundromat, so I hope that this series will also show that hand washing diapers is doable for anyone and can be a great cost saver!

My camp washer! I've never been so excited about a plunger before.

I started using my flats occasionally a few weeks ago to practice the folds, and I have fallen in love with the simplicity of them! They are so easy to get clean since most are only one layer of fabric and they dry lightning fast on the line. For anyone who has struggled to find a washing routine that will actually get their cloth diapers clean, flats are a great option to try. It is hard to mess up a flat diaper!

First flat of the challenge: Geffen Baby flat pad folded in a GroVia cover.

I hope you all will follow along this week as I learn and explore flats and hand washing! Follow along on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #flatschallenge.

Post-Birth Bath's for Mama

2013-05-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

With mothers in mind this month, I am posting this for all of our new mothers out there! I know a handful of women that have either just given birth, or are waiting very impatiently to meet their little one. After birth care for the mother is not something that I was told much about when I had my baby. After the marathon of pregnancy and the forty yard dash of childbirth, your body needs some healing. One of the most helpful ways of promoting healing after the many atrocities of a vaginal birth is a 10-20 minute bath with some bath teas. Below are some simple recipes to reduce the aggravation, help circulation and keep you clean. These teas are not for drinking! But a nice cup of chamomile would be soothing to drink while soaking in these wonderfully fragrant concoctions. Keeping the water level low in these baths helps to keep the mixture more potent. For the first week do these baths 1-3 times a day if you can manage between the hourly feedings and changings!

Lavender Infusion

-4 cups of lavender tea: 3 tablespoons of lavender flowers to each cup of boiling water. Steep for 5-10 minutes and strain. Add 2 tablespoons of sea salt to the tea, dissolving well. Allow it to cool slightly, and then poor into the bath. The water should be on the hotter side, but not uncomfortable. I made a large batch of this and kept it in the fridge.

-Add a drop of tea tree oil or patchouli oil to the surface of the water and mix before getting in the bath.

Rosemary Infusion

-4oz of these mixed herbs: rosemary, sage and garlic and 4 cups water made in to a tea and strained just like the lavender tea.

-2 TBSP sea salt (sea salt is recommended over table salt)

Calendula and Comfrey Root Infusion (my favorite)

-4oz of these mixed herbs: chamomile flower , calendula, lavender and rose petals in 4 cups water made into a tea and strained just like the lavender tea. Pick and choose which of these herbs you want and have available to you. I used dried comfrey root from the local health store, lavendar flowers, and a drop or two of calendula oil straight in to the bath.

-2 TBSP sea salt (sea salt is recommended over table salt)

Again, please don't drink these teas. Some of these ingredients aren't good for consumption. Make yourself a cup of normal tea or a hot toddy and enjoy the wonder of what you have survived! I hope you had the happiest of Mother's Days and know how wonderful you are for turning yourself inside-out to birth and nurture this new human.

Gordy's Girl Wool Soakers

2013-05-14T22:25:00.001-04:00

With the Flats Handwashing Challenge coming up next week I wanted to highlight an awesome affordable diaper cover option. If you've been been around the cloth diaper community at all, you've probably heard about how awesome wool covers are. If you have followed through and looked up wool covers you have also probably discovered that they can be very pricey. Well, when I found Gordy's Girl on Etsy, I was really excited to have discovered a wool cover at a reasonable price. Priced between $8 and $14 per cover, these are a fantastic way to try wool affordably. All the products at Gordy's Girl are made by Shannon, a WAHM, and many are up-cycled wool. I love buying up-cycled wool because not only do cloth diapers keep disposables out of the landfills, but up-cycling old sweaters keeps them out of the landfills too!

Shannon sent a heavy wetter soaker in size large for Ava and me to review. The red portion is an up-cycled heavily felted wool and the gray on the waist and legs is a soft merino wool. This soaker doesn't need an extra layer in the wet zone due to the heavy felting on the main portion of it.

We used this on Ava over prefolds, fitteds, flats, and over our bulkiest nighttime solutions and got a really good fit with all of them. My favorite time to use this cover is at night actually! It does really well over nighttime diapers and I have never had a leak with this cover. I have found that since it is a pull over style the waist does stretch out a bit after a week or so of being pulled over a huge nighttime diaper. This has not affected the function for us at all though, and it does regain its snugness when I wash it. You can see in these pictures the nice fit I got on Ava!

Overall this soaker has worked great for us! I highly recommend these if you are looking to try wool for the first time or just want an affordable way to get some awesome up-cycled unique wool. Check out Gordy's Girl on Etsy to see all the adorable cover options she has.

Schmidt's Natural Deodorant

2013-05-10T08:00:00.000-04:00

Another great product for today's active mother from Schmidts Beauty

"Schmidt's Deodorant is made from a signature blend of all natural ingredients that really works. Our product effectively neutralizes underarm odor and absorbs wetness without the use of harmful chemicals."

With the wonderful and warm spring that we have had in Oregon, I've been able to really give this product a try. Our garden is booming and Coral is loving our trips to the park so I have been lucky to have Schmidt's natural deodorant on hand. At the end of each day I have been so pleased that I don't have much of an odor at all!

I have been looking into natural deodorants for a while since I don't want to expose myself to the chemicals that are in conventional products. I have been happy and not-so-happy with a few different natural stick deodorants that come in plastic tubes. When I found Schmidt's, I was interested in trying to "think outside the plastic" as the say and use their baking soda based product that comes in glass.

The glass jar of deodorant comes with this handy little spatula that helps scoop the paste out with. Take a pea size lump and smooth over your underarms. It feels grainy at first but the shea butter in it smooths it out. You can see the amount I put on my hand below and once it's rubbed in, it just has a light powdery surface.

I got to try three varieties: Ylang-Ylang + Calendula, Cedarwood + Juniper and Unscented. I really liked both scents and Schmidt's has just added two new varieties so check them out!

They have generously offered two deordorants to our readers so enter the raffle below and check out their Facebook page. Let them know we sent you!

raffle will run from 5/10-5/17

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Traveling with Cloth-Part 2

2013-05-08T08:00:00.000-04:00

I shared a few months ago a post about traveling with cloth. I had driven with our cloth diapers quite a few times, but had never flown with them. So, I thought I'd just share a few thoughts on how that went!
A few weeks ago we flew down to Florida on vacation, and I brought along cloth diapers, along with cloth swim diapers. And overall, it went great!!

little beach bum

I had no issues with the washer and dryer there, which was nice (often when I travel to MI with my diapers I need to strip them when I get home....not exactly sure if it's the water or the washer/dryer). And I packed the perfect amount to be able to wash diapers every other day....didn't have extras, but could always make it to wash day. The other benefit we have with using cloth is that my son's clothes fit :) He's pretty thin, so the cloth bum keeps his pants up!! So I didn't need to worry about which pants he wore while we were down there.
Now, there was a downside to bringing cloth--space. Cloth diapers take up a lot of space! If I had prefolds big enough to fit my son, I would have brought those since they're smaller, but I didn't. So I brought pockets for daytime and a few fitteds for naptime and nighttime. I packed everything flat, with the pockets unstuffed. But they still took up a lot of space! Luckily, we needed to check a bag anyway for suntan lotion and all that fun stuff. So, we had the room, but I will say, they took up a significant portion of the suitcase.
The other place space was an issue was while we were actually flying and in the airport. Cloth diapers just take up a lot more room than disposables! Luckily my wet bag has a snapped handle, so I just snapped it onto our stroller and no one really noticed we had an extra "bag". But I had a really hard time fitting three or four cloth diapers into our carry-on bag with all the other things we needed to keep an almost two-year old occupied on a flight!
One way I could have reduced the amount of space they took up was just to do laundry every day. This would have pretty much cut the number of diapers in half. I just didn't know if I'd have been able to keep up with doing laundry every day. But that definitely would have reduced the amount of space the diapers took up.

So, overall, I'd say if you have the space, go for it!! I loved having our cloth diapers down there and not having to buy disposables. But, I also feel like, if you don't have the space, don't feel bad! Disposables have their place, and at times, traveling is definitely one of them!
We're flying again this week for my sister's graduation, and unfortunately, there's just going to be no room for my diapers. While its a bummer, I'm not going to feel bad buying disposables. Sometimes you just have to do it! I'll just be sure to bring Myles' belt so his pants don't fall down :)

Has anyone else had an experience like this?? Any tips for reducing the amount of space cloth diapers take up?